


Kafka on Repeat

by crmsndragonwngs



Series: Seidou Week 2015 [3]
Category: Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: F/M, Gen, Seidou Week, i honestly don't know, slightly AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-04
Updated: 2015-11-04
Packaged: 2018-04-29 23:35:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,296
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5143028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crmsndragonwngs/pseuds/crmsndragonwngs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Seidou Week - Day 3<br/>Black and White—fear, despair, transformation</p>
            </blockquote>





	Kafka on Repeat

**Author's Note:**

> _When [he] woke up one morning from unsettling dreams he found himself changed...into a monstrous vermin. "What's happened to me?" he thought. It was no dream_  
>  \- The Metamorphosis  
>  Franz Kafka

When they finally call off the search for Takizawa’s body, Akira realizes that she never told him that she loved him. That she’d always loved him, from the moment she saw him and told herself that she hated him. Arima had made the call, told them if they couldn’t find their colleagues then they were surely dead. Nothing more than a light snack for scavengers that were drawn to the wake of their stronger kin. They found First Class Amon Koutarou dead. They found Special Class Shinohara Yukinori unresponsive. But they never found Rank Two Takizawa Seidou.

When she finally falls asleep that night, she dreams of him. She dreams that she finds him wounded and unconscious in an alley, and drags him back to the operations base. He’s hospitalized but okay, and when he wakes up he grins that big stupid grin of his and tells her not to be sorry. She wakes up crying.

“Give me a break, will you?” She tells a coworker a week later when she accuses Akira of not caring that he’s dead. “I loved him, and I never got to tell him.”

\---

He’s scared and alone, and all he can think about is her. He hopes she’s safe, and he hates himself for leaving her. _If she’s dead (or worse), it’s all my fault._

Then a light flicks on with an industrial _thunk_ and he’s left squinting in the glare of the white room around him. Horrified, he realizes he’s chained to a chair.

“If you’re a good boy, Takizawa-kun, then you get a snack. If you’re a _bad_ boy, then you don’t get to eat for a week.” A girl says as she enters the room, her head tilted childishly to one side. She’s covered head to foot in bandages and wears a purple cloak with ears on the hood. 

“Who are you?” He demands, cursing his shaking voice. She tilts her head to the other side and seems to smile.

“I think the doves call me the One-Eyed Owl.” She says softly, walking on light feet to stand in front of him. “Everyone here calls me Eto, though. I’d like for you to do the same, Takizawa-kun.” And he can’t stop the terror that jolts down his spine and winces as his shudder rattles his chains.

“Where am I?” He asks, his voice sounding small and far away, and he knows before she answers that it is a stupid question.

“You’re safe.” She says, rocking back on her heels. “At least you are as long as you behave and do everything asked of you.” She rocks forward onto her toes. “Speaking of which, since you’ve been so polite so far, I’ll let you have something to eat.” He sees her mouth open wide beneath the bandages and he thinks she might be grinning. Then the doors open again and a boy is shoved through. He’s maybe five years old, at the most, and he’s shaking so hard he can barely stand. Eto moves around the chair and frees Takizawa’s hands, then dances over to the child and ushers him closer.

“What?” Takizawa asks, looking at her with what he hopes is confusion. Again, he already knows the answer, but he tries to ignore the savory smell that drifts up from the boy. _I’m starving_ , he thinks as his stomach growls, and he forces himself to look only at Eto.

“It’s been about a week since we brought you here. You’ve been out for most of it, but you’re awake now and I imagine you’re hungry. So here’s your first meal.” She sings, then giggles. “Your first meal as a ghoul, anyway. I suggest you take advantage; a ghoul’s hunger is nothing short of hell.”

“Fuck you!” He screams without thinking, slamming back into the chair hard enough to rattle the bolts that hold it in place. “I’m not a fucking ghoul, I’m human. Get that kid out of here and bring me some real food!”

“Oh, Takizawa-kun.” Eto sighs, unfazed, and shakes her head. She chains his hands again before pushing the boy back out of the room, then moves to a table to retrieve something. She returns with a needle in one hand and a pair of heavy duty wire cutters in the other. “You didn’t do as I asked, so now you don’t get to eat for a week.” She crawls into his lap and grabs a fistful of his hair, yanking his head back hard enough to hurt. “And because you were so rude about it…” She pauses to jab the needle down into his eye and ignores his screaming as he jerks beneath her. She slides off his lap and moves to the back of the chair once more, snapping the wire cutters shut as she continues, “I’m going to take all of your fingers, too.”

\---

Every time she’s a part of a major operation Akira thinks of him. She thinks of how scared he was. She things of how unfair everything turned out that night. And as she tears her way through Naki’s White Suits she realizes that this time is no different. She’s so wrapped up in her thoughts of him that when she hears the sudden, gut-wrenching scream over the intercom she thinks it’s something her mind made up to torture her. Then the intercom starts laughing, high and wild, and when a new voice speaks her blood runs cold.

“This is amazing. Who set up this strange thing for me?” The voice rasps, and Akira’s heart stops. She hears Sasaki gasp (he must have been the one screaming), and her terror seizes her fully.

“Who is Rank One Sasaki fighting?” She screams into her radio as the voice continues.

“Now everyone on the premises can hear me! I just thought of something great…”

“Answer me, Washuu! Who is Sasaki fighting?” And she doesn’t care that she’s screaming at her superior. All she cares about is her subordinate sounds like he’s dying, and the man killing him is—

She takes off at a sprint toward the auction hall. Washuu is saying something in her ear, but she can’t hear him. She can’t hear anything but the wild laughter and Sasaki’s wails. Everything’s too loud, she can’t hear herself think. Can’t concentrate. Can’t keep his name from drifting into her thoughts.  
She tears the earpiece from her ear. Washuu keeps talking in her hand, his voice little more than a caricature of itself, and she almost laughs. She wonders if that makes her crazy.

\---

His eyes are like cherries, his skin is like sliced cheese, and his blood, oh his blood is the gravy that ties it all together. Or maybe it’s syrup? Raspberry syrup, or cherry, or strawberry. What other berries are red? Ah fuck it, who cares? He’s a feast regardless, and only Takizawa’s at the table.

He can’t stop grinning, and holy _shit_ is this fun or what?! Kaneki Sasaki whatever his fucking face is just screams and screams and why the hell is everyone so in love with this fucker? He’s not half as strong as Takizawa is. He might have been once, but this ghoul investigator fuck is nothing compared to the stories that bitch told him.

“He’s so much stronger than you, Takizawa-kun, but that’s okay because second best is okay too, right?” She says, all the goddamn time, and he can’t help but spit. It lands on Saneki’s face and Takizawa throws his head back and laughs.

Too bad the intercom got turned off, that would have been fun for all the CCG drones to hear. Their precious Sasaki, nothing more than a declawed Kaneki wrapped in bubble wrap, spat on like the useless garbage he is. _How nostalgic_ , Takizawa thinks with a grin.

**Author's Note:**

> The Metamorphosis is one of my most favorite stories ever written, and I love that Ishida-sensei uses themes from this iconic work. That's ultimately why I named this fic what I did. TG is a story of transformation and strife, and it uses repetition as a theme in such a way that it's actually worthy of peer review. Of course, there are many works referenced, and many themes introduced, but the nods to The Metamorphosis are my favorite. It fits with the prompt as well lol.
> 
> Anyway, Seidou's transformation is something I have explored many times, so I'm a little worried about sounding repetitive in this fic. I hope that's not the case, and that you guys enjoyed it, but as always feedback is appreciated :)
> 
> Also, I took some liberties with the canon dialog...
> 
> ~~Also also, sorry all my fics seem to look through a Seiaki lens... :P~~


End file.
